were only some of Vancouver's finest who were discovered by the world. Like many of the world's precious gems, the most dazzling were preempted and stashed away by the local guys who found them first.
By the time we got to the frat house we were all whacked. Jerry wandered around the parking lot while we loaded the gear into the van. Somehow we managed to drive to Kits Beach in time and some helpers set up our stuff. I was so high by this time that I cannot remember if anyone actually played. I have a foggy recollection of the City Police shutting us down before anyone played a note.
A promoter named Roger Schiffer, along with partners Jim Allan and Blaine Culling, had opened Dantes Inferno back in June with - who else - Country Joe & The Fish, and had followed up in July with concerts by The Grateful Dead and The Doors. The first weekend, with The Fish, they called it The Fishmarket and then changed the name to Dantes Inferno after.
Dantes Inferno was located at the corner of Davie and Burrard in a venue formerly called the Embassy Ballroom. The Embassy presented rhythm & blues acts like Little Daddy & The Bachelors with Floyd Sneed on drums before he went off to play with Three Dog Night and a guitarist named Tommy Chong before he hooked up with Richard “Cheech” Marinand became Cheech & Chong. The Embassy crowd moved into a room in the basement and called it The Elegant Parlour. Members of Little Daddy & The Bachelors reformed as Three Niggers & A Chink and then under the more refined name, Bobby Taylor & The Vancouvers. They had a big hit on Motown Records titled, Does Your Mother Know about Me, and moved to Detroit for a time. Their drummer’s name was Duris Maxwell and was considered one of the best drummers in the world - The Temptations reportedly begged him to play with them but he wanted to return to Vancouver. Their organist, Robbie King was a genius on the Hammond organ. It was believed that he played the organ intro to The Supremes’ hit, Stop! In the Name of Love.
Schiffer, Allan and Culling rented the venue from a club owner named, Jim Wisbey who owned strip joints all over town featuring sophisticated entertainment such as nude mud-fights and nude Jello-wrestling. He wasn’t that keen on staging concerts but after The Fish did so well he agreed to rent the place full time.
On September 15th Roger and his partners changed the name to The Retinal Circus. As we had been away on our barnstorming tour, our first opportunity to play there was October 27th when we appeared with The Ph Phactor Jug Bandfrom San Francisco and The Painted Ship.
The Retinal Circus was an old ballroom that held about a thousand people. You entered onto a platform and then walked down a wide set of stairs into the auditorium. It had three large ornate pillars across the centre of the floor which created some challenging sightlines for anyone sitting behind them. The stage was positioned on one of the long sides and played wide. There was a skinny balcony across from the stage where the light show set up. We played a nervous set but the room had a natural, forgiving echo and sounded great.
Vancouver had a history of great night clubs. Some of the old-school supper clubs were still flourishing like The Cave on Hornby, Isy’s on Georgia and The Marco Polo on East Pender in Chinatown. Even the burlesque houses like The Shanghai Junk and New Delhi, both on Main, and The Smiling Buddha and Harlem Nocturne both on Hastings were still packing them in.
But it was the new generation of R&B and rock clubs that really established Vancouver as a music town. One of the earliest of these was The Pink Pussycat located in the basement of the V-shaped building where Cordova Street intersects with Water Street. They had a twenty-foot cartoon of the Pink Pussycat wearing a top-hat and leaning on a cane on top of the entrance. Then came The Flame in Burnaby, The Torch on Howe Street (where Bill Henderson started up The Collectors), The King of Clubs on Seymour at Drake and The Hollywood Bowl on Carnarvon in New Westminster (it soon changed its name to The Grooveyard).
The best of them all was Oil Can Harry’s. An entrepreneur named Danny Baceda and his mother took over an underground club for homosexuals called The 752 Club on Thurlow between Alberni and Robson and turned it into the most popular R&B club in Vancouver. People used to drive up from Seattle to go to Oil Can’s. It was packed every night.
And there was a powerful force emerging on the local music scene. A twenty-one year old music fanatic from Dunbar on Vancouver’s West Side had set up shop as a manager and booking agent. His name was Bruce Allen. He was smart, brash and tough. He was intimidating and confrontational. He worked hard for his bands and he worked hard for his clubs. His first band was a great top-forty group called 5 Man Cargo with Gerald Laishley, John Telling and drummer Dave Johnsonformerly of The Shockers. The first club that he booked exclusively was Lasseter’s Den on East Broadway near Commercial Drive. He also started booking bands for a promoter named Drew Burns who ran a singles club called the 5thDay Club.
Bruce had the balls to succeed no matter what. He also possessed a sincere, profound love of music. The combination made him unstoppable.
He had an eye for greatness. He worshiped Elvis Presley. Elvis was The King of Rock & Roll. He hated The Seeds of Time. He saw us as a bunch of flakes.
Bruce Allen would go on to be one of the most important figures in the Canadian music industry and the single most influential person in my career.
Bruce wasn’t the only someday-music-mogul in the neighbourhood. A drifter since graduating from Lord Byng High School in West Point Grey, Sam Feldman had no idea of the destiny that awaited him in the music business. He was earning a living playing poker. When he went up north to work in a pulp mill, he made ends meet by winning at the pool tables. The extent of his ambition at that time was to fulfill his dream of going to Europe. He’d achieve it, but not the way he thought.
The light show at the Retinal Circus was provided by The Addled Chromish Light Show. It was run by Jeff Lilly and two stoned out hippies named Stephen and Kevin. Jeff was a strong, intelligent young man from the right side of the tracks. When the Revolution started he grew his hair and ran away to start a psychedelic light show. He had a gift for electronics and wires and working with metal and he had the brains to do something with it. Unfortunately, he also had a weakness for things that could kill him. This would sidetrack him for a while.
Jeff’s sister Jocelyn also helped out. She was a lot like her brother except prettier. When Geoff met Jocelyn, it was love at first sight. From that moment on they were inseparable. It wouldn’t be long before they shared more than love.
On Halloween, The Seeds of Time played a dance at the Dunbar Community Centre. We played in a large second story meeting room to a full house of about five hundred brawling teenagers. The band was set up in front of a bank of large windows that had been covered in paper and painted with colourful witches, goblins and ghouls for the festivities.
Jim introduced a friend named Ron. Ron was a speed freak who was dealing methamphetamine. He was adamant about laying some speed on us. He said it would give us a happy boost. He unfolded a little paper and thrust it in my face. I stared at the white powder.
“It'sfuckin'methMan,” he shouted so rapidly it was one word.
I was supposed to lick it off. Down deep, Gary Wanstall was frightened. Gary didn't know what this shit was, he didn't know what it could do to him. The Rock didn't care. The Rock licked the paper clean.
It wasn't a bit like cannabis. It wasn't at all like hallucinogenics. It was more like an acute anxiety attack. My heart pounded so fast it made my chest hurt. I felt flush and vigorous. I was very hot, my ears burned. It was a boost alright, I'm not sure if it was a happy one.
Everyone got a taste then we jumped up on the stage and started playing very fast. When a boulder came crashing through the window to my right, I just laughed at the broken glass and sped up the tempo even more.
I spotted a gorgeous blonde in the audience. She looked like a Vogue fashion model. She waved at me. It was DeeDee, Ann’s eleven year old friend who was all grown up now, at thirteen. I was distracted by another rock breaking the glass behind me. When I looked back for her, she was gone. I didn't see her again. A few years later